YouTube has never been one to shy away from trends, as we’ve seen by it copying Instagram with YouTube Stories. Now, it’s going after TikTok with YouTube Shorts, vertical videos up to 60 seconds of length that loop by default.
Originally, the length was restricted to 15 seconds when Shorts was in testing, but now with the official rollout of the “Shorts camera,” the limit has been increased to 60 seconds to better compete against Tiktok. Some other key features of YouTube Shorts include, adding music, text, auto-generated captions, filters, and more.
- Music & sound: Add a song or use other audio to create your own Short.
- Text: Add text after recording a Short and use Timeline to control when it appears and disappears.
- Speed: Choose to accelerate or slow down recording.
- Timer: Set the countdown to record hands-free and choose when to automatically stop recording.
- Shorts filters: You can add different filters to your Shorts in the recording and editing screens to color correct your Short, and we’ll continue to bring more filters and effects over the coming year.
The “Shorts camera” is now available in the U.S. and India, it can be found by pressing the plus button at the bottom of the YouTube app. Once created, Shorts will be present in the Explore and carousel sections of the app, and the latest YouTube UI even has a button in the bottom bar dedicated to them. As a result, the Explore button has now been moved to the upper left-hand corner.
If you’re not in the U.S. or India, don’t worry, you’ve not been left out. Simply take a vertical video up to 60 seconds and include #Shorts in the title or description of the video. This will help YouTube recommend your video along with all the other Shorts present on the platform.
